


iii. living nightmare

by icymapletree



Series: febuwhump/febufluff 2020 [3]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: (kind of), Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Febuwhump, Gen, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Virtual Reality, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-03
Updated: 2020-02-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:20:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22545436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icymapletree/pseuds/icymapletree
Summary: “I’m scared,” Peter says into the darkness, “I don’t like being unable to tell what’s real.”“Just say the word, and you’re out,” Sam reassures. “Ready?”“Ready.”
Relationships: Peter Parker & Sam Wilson, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: febuwhump/febufluff 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1618837
Comments: 12
Kudos: 130





	iii. living nightmare

“I’m scared,” Peter says into the darkness, “I don’t like being unable to tell what’s real.”

“Just say the word, and you’re out,” Sam reassures. “Ready?”

“Ready.”

They’d hijacked his spider sense for this, to get it to react to in-simulation changes. It scares him, going back into BARF, but he knows he needs to do this.

Peter squeezes his eyes shut and waits for the atmospheric change. The air gets thicker and muckier by the second which is replicating his memory. When his body fully settles in, he browses the candy shelf like he did on that night, stepping over the sticky stain on the linoleum floor.

He’s become so much more in tune with his senses since then, and when lights flicker, it doesn't hit him as hard. He remembers how he wasn’t used to the overload in his brain yet - any change in brightness caused an ache in the back of his head.

He waits for the ring of the door chime when the robber will open the door. Peter knows that this time he won’t put his arms up and hide behind the snack display.

That is a mistake that cost two lives that week-- the cashier, named Elliot, and Ben.

The months following when he let the robber go, he spent hours at Elliot’s grave. He was barely a high school student, and got that job to support his single mother and younger sister. A fourteen year-old boy, same as he was, working in a dirty old gas station because it’s the only place that would allow him to work under the radar of law enforcement at such a young age. 

He glances over at the register, at the curly red hair sitting atop the boy’s head. His uniform that would soon be soaked in blood-- but not this time, Peter reminds himself.

The door finally opens, and Peter straightens his stance. 

“Hands up!”

Peter’s hands shoot up in the air, but he steps toward the voice. 

“Get out of my way,” the robber says, and when Peter doesn’t move, he adds, “you’re just a kid.”

“But so is he,” Peter says, nodding at the cashier.

“I will shoot!” 

“If you’re gonna shoot, shoot me!”

“Get out of my way!” 

Peter stands as still as a statue, shaking a little bit. It’s not real, he reminds himself, but he knows he has to do this.

“I’m serious, kid,” the man says, but Peter shakes his head and takes a step closer.

“Fucking move!” The man’s hand moves towards the trigger.

He waits for the twinge of spider-sense on the back of his neck. Everything is in slow motion, the click of the gun, the _bam_ of the bullet being fired.

He flips over it, and when he lands, his chest is heaving. He did it. In this reality, he would call the cops, and Ben and the cashier would never get shot.

It only takes a moment before he’s headfirst in another memory.

He bounds over the battlefield, toward the shine of the red and gold caused by the lightning darting through the cloudy sky.

Peter saves Tony, just like he did after his field trip from MOMA. He can’t help but feel a rush of relief he feels when he sees Tony, the man is kind of _alive_ , even if he really is fake.

“Hey! Holy cow! You will not believe what's been going on. Do you remember when we were in space? And I got all dusty? And I must've passed out because I woke up and you were gone. But Doctor Strange was there, right? And he said 'It's been five years. Come on, they need us.' And he started doing the yellow sparkly thing that he does…” 

He knows he’s being over enthusiastic - there was the Peter before, and then there’s the Peter after. But, right now, he is the Peter _before_.

He anticipates the hug and the fuzzy warmth that would follow. He can feel Tony’s relief in the embrace, the way that his usually tense stature slumps. 

He can’t change the outcome of the battle, this wasn’t his fault, indirectly or not. He couldn’t bring Tony back, but he wanted the chance to tell him something very important.

When they separate, he looks at Tony, making sure to enunciate every word. 

“I love you.”

Fake-Tony tilts his head. “I love you, too.”

Then he’s back in the darkness, waiting for another change in the air. It would be heavy and dank, caused by the same tech that is causing the changes now.

It’s the bar in Venice, the one lit under fake candlelight. 

“You’re not gonna do that, are you?” Beck asks, feigning concern.

“No, because I have too much responsibility.”

A woman bends down and passes Peter the glasses from the floor. “Thank you so much,” he mumbles.

“Oh my god are those--”

“The EDITH glasses, yeah.”

“They were on the floor?”

“Well, yeah. But I feel like you knew that.”

Beck looks confused, but gestures for Peter to put them on. 

“I think I’ll grow into them,” Peter says, sitting up straighter, “I really like them.”

“Can I be completely honest with you?”

“Yeah...”

“They look stupid… but maybe there’s like a contact lens version of them or something.”

“Yeah, well...”

Beck continues to begrudge him for the glasses, but Peter ends up leaving the bar with not only the glasses, but a newfound spring in his step. 

He's almost proud of the way he handled himself-- being put back into BARF was months in the making.

But now it's over, and he knows it’s coming before it does-- he’s plunged back into the darkness. It doesn’t last long, though, the room lights up and Sam is waiting there for him with an unreadable expression on his face.

It kind of looks like pride.

A million emotions are coursing through Peter’s veins, and a couple are positive. He couldn’t actually go back and right his wrongs, but it makes him feel better that he could at least pretend.

“I think,” Peter breathes, “I think this is what Tony would want for his tech.”

Sam rushes over, kneeling down and holding Peter, letting the kid cry into his shoulder. “He’d be so, so proud of you.” The boy looks up at the ceiling, and Sam amends, “He _is_ proud of you.”

**Author's Note:**

> not really of fan of this one, but i figured it couldn't hurt to send it out into the world anyway
> 
> come talk to me on [tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/icymapletree)!


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